


lazytown vent fic from 2017

by Lavender_Menace



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Author Projecting onto Sportacus, Crying, Emergency Rooms, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Extra Dose of Trigger Warnings, Hopeful Ending, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Introspection, M/M, Men Crying, Self-Harm, Suicide Attempt, Waiting Rooms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24131164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_Menace/pseuds/Lavender_Menace
Summary: Sportacus waits with Robbie in the emergency room, while the staff try to find an open bed at a psychiatric facility
Relationships: Robbie Rotten & Sportacus, Robbie Rotten/Sportacus
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	lazytown vent fic from 2017

**Author's Note:**

> this was a familiar scene that I jotted down a lifetime ago, things did get better. Please don't take me too seriously lol

Sportacus had always hated feeling helpless. He was used to saving people, to being their rock when times were tough. It was very rare that there was a problem that he could not fix. But he couldn’t fix this.

The bustling miserable sounds of the emergency room sifted in through the open door of their semi-private room as Sportacus held Robbie’s hand in his own. With exercise-worn fingers he caressed his boyfriend’s knuckles, looking down at the white sheets of the cot. Robbie was sitting upright, cross-legged and staring off into space with a blank look on his face. His make-up was smudged from dried tears, although Sportacus had done his best to wipe the worst of the goop away with a moist paper towel earlier that evening. The clock inched toward midnight steadily as they waited.

The bandages on Robbie’s wrist were stained red, and threads were unraveling from the gauze where they had been improperly pinned down by a nurse. Sportacus remembers that she had looked rushed; the emergency room had been very busy then. 

Outside the room he knew that the current nurses were calling out to local psych hospitals, doing their best to find a facility nearby that had an open bed. He had been told that every call took quite some time, as paperwork was filled and urgent cases came into the emergency room and took the attention the staff. It wasn’t like Sportacus to be frustrated by situations like this, but the longer that they were here the more tired that Robbie looked; the less he seemed to respond. It almost looked as though he was giving up.

Again.

But there was nothing that he could do. So Sportacus sat there in the hard plastic chair, and he tapped his foot as he held Robbie's hand. He remembered the events of the afternoon—how Robbie had texted him while he was at work, keeping up his end of the promise they had made together. Sportacus had made Robbie promise to text him if he ever felt unsafe. To text him if he thought that he might be a danger to himself. Sportacus had left work early, jogging back to their apartment with his phone in his hand. It was something that had happened before, but Sportacus found that he could never shake the terrible thought that he might be too late. Every time that Robbie texted him like this he feared that he would not make it back in time to help him.

.

The scene in their apartment would have seemed horrific to someone who had not become so accustomed to cleaning up their partner’s blood. To someone who was less resigned to it. Robbie had sat himself on the edge of the bathtub and let his wrist bleed into the basin, watching dully as the brightly colored liquid dripped down the drain. But Sportacus had practice with scenes like this—a quick glance at the cuts told him that they weren’t life threatening—or even particularly deep—he had seen worse from his boyfriend before. Still it was hard to look at, and he had clenched his fists at the sight. He remembered how Robbie had looked up at him with tears in his eyes, and how he had embraced the taller man, holding Robbie as tightly as he dared. 

Sportacus also remembered the rattle of the pill bottle that was still clenched in Robbie’s hand.

That bottle had been the truly dangerous part of the incident—the little detail that had caused Robbie to text him and enact their safety plan. Thankfully Robbie hadn’t taken any of the pills, but he told Sportacus that he felt unsafe, and more tears had leaked from his eyes as he confessed that he had been seriously planning on ending his life for more than a week. Even though he knew that it wasn’t his fault Sportacus had wondered if there was anything more that he could have done to have kept his boyfriend from feeling this way. There was nothing else to do but take Robbie to the Emergency room, and to wait for a transfer to an inpatient psychiatric facility.

.

Sportacus was shaken back to the present as a wailing old woman was brought out into the hall of the emergency room. He couldn’t tell what was wrong with her but it was obvious that she was in agony. It was her pained wail that jerked Robbie out of his stupor, and Sportacus watched as Robbie looked around before curling in on himself, his hunched shoulders shaking as the woman’s screams faded into the distance.

“I take it back.” Robbie said finally, his voice rough from crying. “I don’t want to be here, this is stupid.” He seems lost, or displaced. The bright colors of his clothing stick out against the somber whites of the hospital.

Sportacus holds his hand more tightly, wanting for all the world to take Robbie home so that they could curl up in their own bed and go to sleep. “We can’t leave Robbie.” He replies tiredly. “Now that you’re here they can’t legally let you leave, if you try they will have to admit you involuntarily.” His words only seemed to discourage his boyfriend more and Robbie’s breath hitched as he began to cry again. Sportacus can feel his own eyes well up with guilty tears but he holds them back, instead smiling reassuringly at Robbie as he reaches up to caress his back.

“It’ll be okay Robbie.” He croons, leaning in to kiss his boyfriend’s cheek. “This will only be for a little while—just long enough to help you get to a safer place. Then you can come home to our apartment and our bed. Soon you can keep getting better from there.” The words seem to help, but only a little. It isn’t long before Robbie’s tears begin to slow and they lapse back into silence. Sportacus feels like he’s about to shatter. No matter how well things might be in the future it doesn’t change the fact that here, right now, the person that he loves the most in the world wants to die. That Robbie, who had been considering ending his life for a long time, had nearly decided to go through with it. If Sportacus had not made Robbie promise to contact him then Robbie very well might have overdosed in their bathroom while Sportacus held aerobics classes at the gym. The thought made him sick.

Finally finally a nurse enters their little room. In a blur she explains that they found a bed for Robbie in a hospital just over an hour away, she tells them that an ambulance is waiting to transport him there. Sportacus stands, but the nurse turns to him and informs him quite firmly that he can’t go with Robbie. That Robbie will be admitted quickly and then be sent to bed in his new room. The nurse says that this is just procedure. 

It seems far too soon, and Sportacus reels. Only now does it truly sink in that he will be separated from Robbie while he receives treatment. Beside him Robbie is sobbing again, clinging to Sportacus’ hand like a lifeline. Sportacus loses his own battle against the flood of tears in his eyes and he cries in earnest as he gathers Robbie in his arms. “Shhh” he whispers, gently wiping tears away with his finger. “I’ll come visit you as soon as they let me.”

“You’d better.” Robbie chokes out. 

“I will. And I’ll call you every day. I promise that you won’t be alone in this.” 

Robbie manages a weak smile and Sportacus congratulates himself, feeling a teary smile of his own twitch beneath his moustache. Gently he leans in and kisses Robbie, hugging him once more before parting. Then he stands and steps out of the way as Robbie is lead out of the room and down the hall.

Sportacus is left standing there in the empty room, suddenly acutely aware that he will be going home alone. That he will be sleeping in their room alone tonight. The tears do not stop.


End file.
